Scientific advisers struggle for independence

11:05 11 February 2010

Nick Dusic is the director of the Campaign for Science & Engineering (CaSE), and Tracey Brown is the managing director of Sense About Science. CaSE and Sense About Science produced a joint response to the government's consultation on Principles of Scientific Advice.

The government now has the chance to rebuild confidence in how it treats scientific advice and advisers, by adopting a strong set of principles for ministers.

The science community responded constructively to "Nuttgate" by producing a clear set of principles, which were developed from previous statements by the government about the importance of independent scientific advice.
There was nothing particularly new or controversial about them, save that ministers should neither sack nor censure scientific advisers for speaking publicly about issues, especially if it is in their area of expertise.

The science minister Paul Drayson, to his credit, responded by taking up the cause of the principles within government.

There has been much surprise and disappointment from the original endorsers of the principles, and from Nutt, that the government did not take the opportunity to unreservedly affirm its commitment to independent scientific advice, but instead made suggestions that added greater uncertainty to the relationship between ministers and advisers.

These statements need to be removed, and the protection of independent scientific advisers' academic freedom needs to be included in the final version.

What is needed now is for the government to incorporate a strong version of the principles into the Ministerial Code, which every minister has to sign up to.

This position is supported by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.

The government can put the ghost of Nuttgate behind it and restore the confidence of the scientific community, by having ministers live up to a code of conduct comparable to the one already required of scientific advisers.

In the run-up to the election, all political parties need to come out strongly in support of the principles of independent scientific advice being incorporated into the Ministerial Code.

For the future, ensuring the integrity of scientific advice also requires a good deal of common sense by both ministers and advisers to maintain a productive and challenging relationship.